7 ms·

It just feels like the various streaming services are morphing into everything that we hated about cable television.

fullshark 7y ago
The difference this time is that there's no artificial limit on content volume. In other words a tv channel can only deliver 24 hours of content a day, a streaming service can deliver an unbounded amount. This is going to change the dynamics severely I think.
- josefresco 7y ago
  With Comcast cable TV we had a rather large "on demand" library of content. Almost every network offered their content in this manor.
1123581321 7y ago
There are differences: no commercials, shows on demand, more shows, and higher quality (arguably) shows. Additionally, it’s possible to just subscribe to the one service you really like because they all have a lot of content.
- jasonjayr 7y ago
  Hulu shows commercials even if you pay. I'm sure Netflix will start once revenue starts slipping.
  - excalibur 7y ago
    Hulu does offer an ad-free tier, it's like double the cost of the basic plan. I haven't sprung for it yet, but I'm sorely tempted. I can see Netflix looking to a similar model in the future. What are they at now, $12.99? I can see the current base subscription going to $14.99, while simultaneously launching an ad-supported version priced around $7.99. Edit: Netflix actually DOES offer a cheaper $8.99 plan currently. This one is restricted to one screen at a time, and does not offer content in HD. So if they stuck ads on it, maybe they could bring the price down to like $5.99.
    - MisterBastahrd 7y ago
      I pay for the ad-free tier but I still get ads for their live streaming service (and for their DVR, every commercial break gets replaced with 3 minutes of non-fastforwardable commercial content), which is why I'm probably going to stop using their streaming service. I really only wanted it for sports channels anyway.
      - bobwaycott 7y ago
        I think this must be show-dependent. I, too, pay for the ad-free tier, and the most ad-like thing I've seen is a 2- or 3-second Family Guy is returning on <date> and a FOX logo interstitial at the start of streaming an episode of Family Guy. Can't recall seeing anything else across a number of shows.
        jdminhbg 7y ago
        It seems to be network/show-dependent. The ad-free package removes all the ads that Hulu shows, but if Fox has ads of their own they're still in there. I usually get a single FX show promo in every Simpsons episode I watch.
        MisterBastahrd 7y ago
        I have no idea. Sports events tend to be hours long, and every commercial break has these. You can technically skip a few minutes ahead, but then you miss part of the game.
    - t0mas88 7y ago
      YouTube 30 second preroll ads cost currently around $ 7 per 1000 views and it's decreasing. So to take Netflix from $ 14.99 to $ 7.99 per month they would have to show you around 500 minutes of ads every month. That's 33 of those 30 seconds ads every day, without skipping a day. While you still pay $ 7.99 per month as well. I don't expect consumers will accept that. So the only way they can make an ad-supported Netflix work is to create some form of much more effective ad (which usually means taking more of your data) or attract a very specific high value audience (makes them too much of a niche player for their size)
  - ohlookabird 7y ago
    Well, that will be the moment I leave Netflix.
  - 1123581321 7y ago
    If we’re talking subscription tiers with commercials, the cost per month for a bunch of services is much cheaper than cable equivalent.
  - monetus 7y ago
    Netflix has experimented with it. They do product placement still, but the show disjointed has plain commericals. They are a tad unusual for commercials, in that they share the theme of the show.
    - zwkrt 7y ago
      When the content and the advertisement have fully meshed, only then does one reach true nirvana. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9hepxidZyo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9hepxidZyo
      - monetus 7y ago
        This is what I had in mind when I wrote that comment, but 30 rock was a great show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvsTKbGKtbU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvsTKbGKtbU
  - Mindwipe 7y ago
    > Hulu shows commercials even if you pay. Hulu has literally half a dozen old shows that they are contractually required to show an ad in front of or take down entirely. The vast, vast majority of users on the service will never see one. It's a very different scenario to a company actively looking to increase advertising.
  - mortenjorck 7y ago
    Netflix shows commercials right now; they’re just commercials for other Netflix shows. I doubt they’ll start selling the post-roll space to third parties, though, as it’s evidently more profitable for them to use that space to keep you subscribing to the service than to make a few cents for an ad placement. As for cable-style interstitial commercials, though, the only way I could see Netflix ever doing that is if the company were to enter a Blockbuster-level tailspin. It would be selling off the core Netflix experience just to stay afloat.
    - mokus 7y ago
      It bothers me how many people think I’m psychotic when I express this opinion. Frankly, I don’t care whose content they are promoting - SOMEONE please put a fucking price tag on a service that plays exactly the content I select AND NOTHING ELSE. Stupid semantic arguments about whether it is an ad are not are completely irrelevant to the fact that I don’t want to see content I did not pick.
  - zwkrt 7y ago
    I feel like this is some sort of maxim/law: Its inevitable that any product which currently does not include ads will eventually include ads.
    - TeMPOraL 7y ago
      Advertising is a disease, it infects and corrupts everything it touches. Often it starts when a company realizes it's another revenue stream, and adds commercials to a product people already pay for. And when there are competitors, this lets a company undercut them.
      - cwkoss 7y ago
        In 100 years, we'll look back in horror at the thought of showing advertisements to children.
  - TheRealSteel 7y ago
    Netflix already does, they have pretty obvious product placement.
    - broknbottle 7y ago
      Julian's glass of rum and coke in trailer park boys? Is that reason why I always have the urge for a glass of rum and coke when I watch tpb?
  - asdff 7y ago
    Netflix starts rolling commercials the minute you open the website or app
- josefresco 7y ago
  There are commercials on all of the "cable replacement" steaming services. I use YouTube TV and it's worse than cable. They prevent me from watching my DVR content for certain content, instead forcing me to watch the "on demand" version with unskippable ads. Comcast/Xfinity DVR never did that. The only real benefit is that it's slightly cheaper and supports multiple "profiles".
  - nordsieck 7y ago
    > There are commercials on all of the "cable replacement" steaming services. No commercials on Netflix. I"m sure they do product placement and other marketing stuff, though.
    - josefresco 7y ago
      The parent comment is about "streaming services" not just Netflix.
      - ShamelessC 7y ago
        Yeah and you said "all" of them have ads. Netflix doesn't, so clearly they don't all have ads.
        josefresco 7y ago
        All of the "cable replacement" streaming services" - I should have been more clear.
    - sib 7y ago
      Netflix is not a "cable replacement" streaming service. Those services are the so-called VMVPDs such as PS Vue, DirecTV Now, SlingTV, YouTube TV, etc. The key characteristic of these services that differentiates them from Netflix is that they have some coverage of live TV, local TV, and/or sports.
      - 7y ago
- cj 7y ago
  > no commercials Anyone who watches Hulu has heard "will play with a commercial before and after the show". Hulu has been increasing the number of ads they include. It used to be ad free for many shows. Then they went to 30 second ads. Now they're stuffing 180 seconds or more on many shows. > higher quality (arguably) shows Definitely arguable. My feeling is the quality is going down quite a bit, but I think that's because the demand for content volume has increased (in the era of binge watching, a single TV series is started and over in one weekend). > Additionally, it’s possible to just subscribe to the one service you really like because they all have a lot of content. This might be true now. But there are multiple high profile streaming services launching in the next year (e.g. Disney+), which is prompting Disney to pull all content off other platforms.
  - bcassedy 7y ago
    Ever since I started paying for Hulu years ago, I have not seen a single ad while watching it.
    - Klathmon 7y ago
      A few shows still have ads even with the paid option. I know Grey's Anatomy is (or was at one time) one of them, but I believe there are a few others.
      - mokus 7y ago
        Every time I’ve looked it’s fewer shows, though - last I checked it was only 3. They were popular ones but nothing I had any interest in, so I switched from Netflix (I was done waiting for them to let me turn off that horrid auto-preview misfeature) and I have never once seen an ad on Hulu.
    - falcolas 7y ago
      FWIW, the Hulu package associated with the Disney+ option is not the "commercial free" package. So you'll have to pay a bit more with the Disney+ to retain your ad-free experience on Hulu.
  - 7y ago
- HeXetic 7y ago
  > no commercials And yet Amazon Prime insists on showing me ads for their other shows before I can watch the one I actually tapped on to watch. Or the next episode of the show I'm watching. It really diminishes the value a lot.
  - spyspy 7y ago
    HBO does the same thing, for every single episode you watch.
    - ad-hominem 7y ago
      At least you can fast forward through them on HBO - at least on the HBO now app.
  - cannonedhamster 7y ago
    It only shows ads on programs that aren't theirs which is even now nefarious.
  - cwkoss 7y ago
    Amazon's streaming platform feels like being at a used car lot, lots of dark patterns trying to get you to buy or rent, steering you away from included content. I vastly prefer the experience of Netflix.
    - foepys 7y ago
      On my TV and Chromecast the audio is also not in sync with the video. The user experience in regards to currently watched TV shows is extremely weird and I have to search them all the time with my TV remote on a bad, full-sized on-screen keyboard. Prime Video simply feels like a bad Chinese knockoff of Netflix.
- deelowe 7y ago
  > no commercials, shows on demand, more shows, and higher quality (arguably) shows. Ohh you sweet summer child... Cable was the same way when it launched. Everyone knows how this ends.
  - deminature 7y ago
    There's no need to be so unnecessarily condescending. Customers are used to the ad-free model and will be unlikely to accept a return to the 1/3 ads 2/3 content model of cable without significant customer attrition, which streaming services can ill afford in the current competitive landscape.
    - TeMPOraL 7y ago
      What competitive landscape? They're only competing with piracy. Movies and TV shows are mostly non-substitutable, so you almost always have a choice only between a) whichever streaming platform has an exclusive deal on streaming a given show, b) buying physical disks, and c) piracy.
      - deminature 7y ago
        Streaming services are competing with each other, even more aggressively when Disney+ appears on the scene and takes half of Netflix's content. The streaming service with no ads is going to win over the streaming service that has cable-level of ads, unless the show is so good to overwhelm that.
    - cwkoss 7y ago
      After using Netflix for so long, the quantity of ads on even the paid form of Hulu is unpleasant and I avoid it, will not be renewing.
  - 1123581321 7y ago
    The history is quite different, the biggest difference being that there is (effectively) no geographical impediment to selling a streaming service, allowing for much more competition. Additionally, global scale allows budgets for much more content production per service/media company than used to be possible.
- pndy 7y ago
  > no commercials No, but instead a pretty bad attempts at suggesting content because you happen once to watch xyz out of no reason. > more shows If you live in country that happens to have license agreements done well - there's still lot of content I am unable to see on Netflix in Poland because someone holds license rights for the show or movie. I'd like to see older movies, tv series - things I grow up with but instead I'm being constantly flooded with new stuff that I'm not fond of (not mention that damn autoplay preview in "header" part of Netflix in both site and applications; I really wish there would be a way to disable that "feature").
cj 7y ago
The cable industry spent decades discovering the absolute maximum value they could extract from the consumer. Netflix/Hulu have become successful in part because they undercut cable with lower subscription fees and fewer commercials. It makes sense that once streaming becomes the dominent mode of television consumption, with traditional cable pushed out, that they begin to adopt some of the more aggressive value extraction mechanisms as did traditional cable service. I predict the same will happen, or perhaps it's already beginning to happen, with Amazon in the retail sector (Amazon is providing more value for less money compared with traditional retail, which is causing retail chains to close shop, which will lead Amazon to discover new ways to extract new value once brick/mortar chains are gone and no longer competing). But, that is capitalism.
michaelmarion 7y ago
This. Cable television at least has bundling economics going for it [1]. In most cases, streaming services don't. (Save, perhaps, for the forthcoming Disney+ bundle with ESPN+ and Hulu.) [1]: http://cdixon.org/2012/07/08/how-bundling-benefits-sellers-and-buyers/ http://cdixon.org/2012/07/08/how-bundling-benefits-sellers-a...
- RHSeeger 7y ago
  I'm having a hard time understanding the argument being made in that article. If I only want the History channel, then paying for the bundle means I'm paying for a channel I don't want. Given that I only want about 20 channels that my plan offers, but I have to pay for 500, I'm paying for a lot I have no use for. There's even a specific charge for sports channels that I have _never_ watched even once.
nordsieck 7y ago
> It just feels like the various streaming services are morphing into everything that we hated about cable television. Why is that? For years, I heard people saying "I just wish I could get ala carte cable". Well, the future is now.
- nightski 7y ago
  Not exactly. Being able to choose "Netflix" is a lot different than choosing a specific channel which is what people were referring to at the time.
  - TulliusCicero 7y ago
    It's still closer to it than cable was. And people hate it.
- calcifer 7y ago
  > Well, the future is now. Really? How can I buy the shows & movies I want and literally nothing else?
  - mrep 7y ago
    What? You've been able to do that for a long time on Itunes, Google play, and Amazon. You have also been able to buy individual tv shows and movie physical copies at stores for decades.
  - sfotm 7y ago
    iTunes works OK for me :P
    - cannonedhamster 7y ago
      Try it on Windows. Or in an unsupported device. Or anywhere they don't want you to see it. You own nothing with digital. It's a long term rental. Also try passing it along when you die.
rchaud 7y ago
Well, why wouldn't it? Cable TV's various irritations occurred because of the economics of their business; at the end of the day, they want to get paid too. Now that streaming has gone from experimental status to mainstream adoption status, it now has the same pressures to deliver profits above all else. What is the customer going to do, go back to cable TV?
Ozumandias 7y ago
There's been one great outcome of this: me discovering my city's library. It has an incredible film and tv collection. Anything newer than 2016 is also on Blu Ray. If you're a big cinephile like me, having thousands of free rentals at you're disposal is like being a kid in a candy store. Plus, hundreds of Criterion Collection editions for us film buffs.
Cd00d 7y ago
Even worse! There's a factiod tv in my office building's elevators, and one of the news items it showed was Comcast was shipping its customers a Roku-like streaming device. The catch? It won't work with Disney Plus. There have been various wars on other devices (Chromecast/Apple TV/Fire) where certain streaming channels don't work. We got a la cart purchase power. Now we just need to bring our own devices for each service. I've been a long time Roku fan, and for now it can stream everything I want (though there was a time where I needed a Chromecast to get YouTube). When will the battling streaming services change that though?

The difference this time is that there's no artificial limit on content volume. In other words a tv channel can only deliver 24 hours of content a day, a streaming service can deliver an unbounded amount. This is going to change the dynamics severely I think.

josefresco 7y ago
With Comcast cable TV we had a rather large "on demand" library of content. Almost every network offered their content in this manor.

1123581321 7y ago

There are differences: no commercials, shows on demand, more shows, and higher quality (arguably) shows. Additionally, it’s possible to just subscribe to the one service you really like because they all have a lot of content.

jasonjayr 7y ago
Hulu shows commercials even if you pay. I'm sure Netflix will start once revenue starts slipping.
- excalibur 7y ago
  Hulu does offer an ad-free tier, it's like double the cost of the basic plan. I haven't sprung for it yet, but I'm sorely tempted. I can see Netflix looking to a similar model in the future. What are they at now, $12.99? I can see the current base subscription going to $14.99, while simultaneously launching an ad-supported version priced around $7.99. Edit: Netflix actually DOES offer a cheaper $8.99 plan currently. This one is restricted to one screen at a time, and does not offer content in HD. So if they stuck ads on it, maybe they could bring the price down to like $5.99.
  - MisterBastahrd 7y ago
    I pay for the ad-free tier but I still get ads for their live streaming service (and for their DVR, every commercial break gets replaced with 3 minutes of non-fastforwardable commercial content), which is why I'm probably going to stop using their streaming service. I really only wanted it for sports channels anyway.
    - bobwaycott 7y ago
      I think this must be show-dependent. I, too, pay for the ad-free tier, and the most ad-like thing I've seen is a 2- or 3-second Family Guy is returning on <date> and a FOX logo interstitial at the start of streaming an episode of Family Guy. Can't recall seeing anything else across a number of shows.
      - jdminhbg 7y ago
        It seems to be network/show-dependent. The ad-free package removes all the ads that Hulu shows, but if Fox has ads of their own they're still in there. I usually get a single FX show promo in every Simpsons episode I watch.
      - MisterBastahrd 7y ago
        I have no idea. Sports events tend to be hours long, and every commercial break has these. You can technically skip a few minutes ahead, but then you miss part of the game.
  - t0mas88 7y ago
    YouTube 30 second preroll ads cost currently around $ 7 per 1000 views and it's decreasing. So to take Netflix from $ 14.99 to $ 7.99 per month they would have to show you around 500 minutes of ads every month. That's 33 of those 30 seconds ads every day, without skipping a day. While you still pay $ 7.99 per month as well. I don't expect consumers will accept that. So the only way they can make an ad-supported Netflix work is to create some form of much more effective ad (which usually means taking more of your data) or attract a very specific high value audience (makes them too much of a niche player for their size)
- ohlookabird 7y ago
  Well, that will be the moment I leave Netflix.
- 1123581321 7y ago
  If we’re talking subscription tiers with commercials, the cost per month for a bunch of services is much cheaper than cable equivalent.
- monetus 7y ago
  Netflix has experimented with it. They do product placement still, but the show disjointed has plain commericals. They are a tad unusual for commercials, in that they share the theme of the show.
  - zwkrt 7y ago
    When the content and the advertisement have fully meshed, only then does one reach true nirvana. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9hepxidZyo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9hepxidZyo
    - monetus 7y ago
      This is what I had in mind when I wrote that comment, but 30 rock was a great show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvsTKbGKtbU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvsTKbGKtbU
- Mindwipe 7y ago
  > Hulu shows commercials even if you pay. Hulu has literally half a dozen old shows that they are contractually required to show an ad in front of or take down entirely. The vast, vast majority of users on the service will never see one. It's a very different scenario to a company actively looking to increase advertising.
- mortenjorck 7y ago
  Netflix shows commercials right now; they’re just commercials for other Netflix shows. I doubt they’ll start selling the post-roll space to third parties, though, as it’s evidently more profitable for them to use that space to keep you subscribing to the service than to make a few cents for an ad placement. As for cable-style interstitial commercials, though, the only way I could see Netflix ever doing that is if the company were to enter a Blockbuster-level tailspin. It would be selling off the core Netflix experience just to stay afloat.
  - mokus 7y ago
    It bothers me how many people think I’m psychotic when I express this opinion. Frankly, I don’t care whose content they are promoting - SOMEONE please put a fucking price tag on a service that plays exactly the content I select AND NOTHING ELSE. Stupid semantic arguments about whether it is an ad are not are completely irrelevant to the fact that I don’t want to see content I did not pick.
- zwkrt 7y ago
  I feel like this is some sort of maxim/law: Its inevitable that any product which currently does not include ads will eventually include ads.
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    Advertising is a disease, it infects and corrupts everything it touches. Often it starts when a company realizes it's another revenue stream, and adds commercials to a product people already pay for. And when there are competitors, this lets a company undercut them.
    - cwkoss 7y ago
      In 100 years, we'll look back in horror at the thought of showing advertisements to children.
- TheRealSteel 7y ago
  Netflix already does, they have pretty obvious product placement.
  - broknbottle 7y ago
    Julian's glass of rum and coke in trailer park boys? Is that reason why I always have the urge for a glass of rum and coke when I watch tpb?
- asdff 7y ago
  Netflix starts rolling commercials the minute you open the website or app
josefresco 7y ago
There are commercials on all of the "cable replacement" steaming services. I use YouTube TV and it's worse than cable. They prevent me from watching my DVR content for certain content, instead forcing me to watch the "on demand" version with unskippable ads. Comcast/Xfinity DVR never did that. The only real benefit is that it's slightly cheaper and supports multiple "profiles".
- nordsieck 7y ago
  > There are commercials on all of the "cable replacement" steaming services. No commercials on Netflix. I"m sure they do product placement and other marketing stuff, though.
  - josefresco 7y ago
    The parent comment is about "streaming services" not just Netflix.
    - ShamelessC 7y ago
      Yeah and you said "all" of them have ads. Netflix doesn't, so clearly they don't all have ads.
      - josefresco 7y ago
        All of the "cable replacement" streaming services" - I should have been more clear.
  - sib 7y ago
    Netflix is not a "cable replacement" streaming service. Those services are the so-called VMVPDs such as PS Vue, DirecTV Now, SlingTV, YouTube TV, etc. The key characteristic of these services that differentiates them from Netflix is that they have some coverage of live TV, local TV, and/or sports.
    - 7y ago
cj 7y ago
> no commercials Anyone who watches Hulu has heard "will play with a commercial before and after the show". Hulu has been increasing the number of ads they include. It used to be ad free for many shows. Then they went to 30 second ads. Now they're stuffing 180 seconds or more on many shows. > higher quality (arguably) shows Definitely arguable. My feeling is the quality is going down quite a bit, but I think that's because the demand for content volume has increased (in the era of binge watching, a single TV series is started and over in one weekend). > Additionally, it’s possible to just subscribe to the one service you really like because they all have a lot of content. This might be true now. But there are multiple high profile streaming services launching in the next year (e.g. Disney+), which is prompting Disney to pull all content off other platforms.
- bcassedy 7y ago
  Ever since I started paying for Hulu years ago, I have not seen a single ad while watching it.
  - Klathmon 7y ago
    A few shows still have ads even with the paid option. I know Grey's Anatomy is (or was at one time) one of them, but I believe there are a few others.
    - mokus 7y ago
      Every time I’ve looked it’s fewer shows, though - last I checked it was only 3. They were popular ones but nothing I had any interest in, so I switched from Netflix (I was done waiting for them to let me turn off that horrid auto-preview misfeature) and I have never once seen an ad on Hulu.
  - falcolas 7y ago
    FWIW, the Hulu package associated with the Disney+ option is not the "commercial free" package. So you'll have to pay a bit more with the Disney+ to retain your ad-free experience on Hulu.
- 7y ago
HeXetic 7y ago
> no commercials And yet Amazon Prime insists on showing me ads for their other shows before I can watch the one I actually tapped on to watch. Or the next episode of the show I'm watching. It really diminishes the value a lot.
- spyspy 7y ago
  HBO does the same thing, for every single episode you watch.
  - ad-hominem 7y ago
    At least you can fast forward through them on HBO - at least on the HBO now app.
- cannonedhamster 7y ago
  It only shows ads on programs that aren't theirs which is even now nefarious.
- cwkoss 7y ago
  Amazon's streaming platform feels like being at a used car lot, lots of dark patterns trying to get you to buy or rent, steering you away from included content. I vastly prefer the experience of Netflix.
  - foepys 7y ago
    On my TV and Chromecast the audio is also not in sync with the video. The user experience in regards to currently watched TV shows is extremely weird and I have to search them all the time with my TV remote on a bad, full-sized on-screen keyboard. Prime Video simply feels like a bad Chinese knockoff of Netflix.
deelowe 7y ago
> no commercials, shows on demand, more shows, and higher quality (arguably) shows. Ohh you sweet summer child... Cable was the same way when it launched. Everyone knows how this ends.
- deminature 7y ago
  There's no need to be so unnecessarily condescending. Customers are used to the ad-free model and will be unlikely to accept a return to the 1/3 ads 2/3 content model of cable without significant customer attrition, which streaming services can ill afford in the current competitive landscape.
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    What competitive landscape? They're only competing with piracy. Movies and TV shows are mostly non-substitutable, so you almost always have a choice only between a) whichever streaming platform has an exclusive deal on streaming a given show, b) buying physical disks, and c) piracy.
    - deminature 7y ago
      Streaming services are competing with each other, even more aggressively when Disney+ appears on the scene and takes half of Netflix's content. The streaming service with no ads is going to win over the streaming service that has cable-level of ads, unless the show is so good to overwhelm that.
  - cwkoss 7y ago
    After using Netflix for so long, the quantity of ads on even the paid form of Hulu is unpleasant and I avoid it, will not be renewing.
- 1123581321 7y ago
  The history is quite different, the biggest difference being that there is (effectively) no geographical impediment to selling a streaming service, allowing for much more competition. Additionally, global scale allows budgets for much more content production per service/media company than used to be possible.
pndy 7y ago
> no commercials No, but instead a pretty bad attempts at suggesting content because you happen once to watch xyz out of no reason. > more shows If you live in country that happens to have license agreements done well - there's still lot of content I am unable to see on Netflix in Poland because someone holds license rights for the show or movie. I'd like to see older movies, tv series - things I grow up with but instead I'm being constantly flooded with new stuff that I'm not fond of (not mention that damn autoplay preview in "header" part of Netflix in both site and applications; I really wish there would be a way to disable that "feature").

cj 7y ago

The cable industry spent decades discovering the absolute maximum value they could extract from the consumer. Netflix/Hulu have become successful in part because they undercut cable with lower subscription fees and fewer commercials. It makes sense that once streaming becomes the dominent mode of television consumption, with traditional cable pushed out, that they begin to adopt some of the more aggressive value extraction mechanisms as did traditional cable service. I predict the same will happen, or perhaps it's already beginning to happen, with Amazon in the retail sector (Amazon is providing more value for less money compared with traditional retail, which is causing retail chains to close shop, which will lead Amazon to discover new ways to extract new value once brick/mortar chains are gone and no longer competing). But, that is capitalism.

michaelmarion 7y ago

This. Cable television at least has bundling economics going for it [1]. In most cases, streaming services don't. (Save, perhaps, for the forthcoming Disney+ bundle with ESPN+ and Hulu.) [1]: http://cdixon.org/2012/07/08/how-bundling-benefits-sellers-and-buyers/ http://cdixon.org/2012/07/08/how-bundling-benefits-sellers-a...

RHSeeger 7y ago
I'm having a hard time understanding the argument being made in that article. If I only want the History channel, then paying for the bundle means I'm paying for a channel I don't want. Given that I only want about 20 channels that my plan offers, but I have to pay for 500, I'm paying for a lot I have no use for. There's even a specific charge for sports channels that I have _never_ watched even once.

nordsieck 7y ago

> It just feels like the various streaming services are morphing into everything that we hated about cable television. Why is that? For years, I heard people saying "I just wish I could get ala carte cable". Well, the future is now.

nightski 7y ago
Not exactly. Being able to choose "Netflix" is a lot different than choosing a specific channel which is what people were referring to at the time.
- TulliusCicero 7y ago
  It's still closer to it than cable was. And people hate it.
calcifer 7y ago
> Well, the future is now. Really? How can I buy the shows & movies I want and literally nothing else?
- mrep 7y ago
  What? You've been able to do that for a long time on Itunes, Google play, and Amazon. You have also been able to buy individual tv shows and movie physical copies at stores for decades.
- sfotm 7y ago
  iTunes works OK for me :P
  - cannonedhamster 7y ago
    Try it on Windows. Or in an unsupported device. Or anywhere they don't want you to see it. You own nothing with digital. It's a long term rental. Also try passing it along when you die.

rchaud 7y ago

Well, why wouldn't it? Cable TV's various irritations occurred because of the economics of their business; at the end of the day, they want to get paid too. Now that streaming has gone from experimental status to mainstream adoption status, it now has the same pressures to deliver profits above all else. What is the customer going to do, go back to cable TV?

Ozumandias 7y ago

There's been one great outcome of this: me discovering my city's library. It has an incredible film and tv collection. Anything newer than 2016 is also on Blu Ray. If you're a big cinephile like me, having thousands of free rentals at you're disposal is like being a kid in a candy store. Plus, hundreds of Criterion Collection editions for us film buffs.

Cd00d 7y ago

Even worse! There's a factiod tv in my office building's elevators, and one of the news items it showed was Comcast was shipping its customers a Roku-like streaming device. The catch? It won't work with Disney Plus. There have been various wars on other devices (Chromecast/Apple TV/Fire) where certain streaming channels don't work. We got a la cart purchase power. Now we just need to bring our own devices for each service. I've been a long time Roku fan, and for now it can stream everything I want (though there was a time where I needed a Chromecast to get YouTube). When will the battling streaming services change that though?